


The Last Things He Said

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 20:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14701293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: LilacMermaid made me do it!  Maybe not.  I just found the challenge again and realized I misread it.  But the story is written so it must be posted.





	The Last Things He Said

Mac stood leaning against a wall in the waiting room watching Millie talk to Nancy on the phone to get information for the mountains of paperwork that needed filling out.  Mac didn’t know what to do with herself.  She felt so helpless… standing against a wall... waiting.  She couldn’t help reliving everything that happened.  One minute, Charlie sat next to her in his office, trying to get her to join him in a drink.  He knew how upset having Brian here made her.  This time, Charlie didn’t give her a pep talk, he handed her a handkerchief and a glass, then patted her on the shoulder.  She sensed his anger at Will, somehow that made Mac feel better.  She didn’t expect him to say anything to the anchor, but knowing Charlie took her side, it felt good.  She didn’t feel as alone. 

All of sudden, his drink started shaking and then he slumped down.  Mac called his name and when he didn’t answer, she tried to shake him and then she took out her cell phone, called 911 and told Millie to call Nancy.  Mac followed the operator’s instructions to check for vital signs.  He had a heartbeat, his breath came labored.  Mac couldn’t do anything but make him comfortable and wait for an ambulance.  She held his hand and Charlie looked up at Mac and said, “Will.”

Mac looked at him and said, “Will?  Will I, what?  Anything, Charlie.  I will do anything.”  Charlie’s answer came out labored.  Every word he said took effort and breath that she didn’t know if he had.  She had to make this conversation count.  Somehow she just knew she would never talk to him again. 

While Charlie fought for every word, Mac heard people starting to come in.  Millie tried to hold everyone off until the men with the stretcher arrived.  Once the EMTs took over, Mac hung up on the 911 operator and called Will.  He answered with his typical bullish greeting that has recently come back.  “What do you want?”

“Will, it’s Charlie.  We’re on our way to the hospital.  You need to, you need to get there.”  The phone went silent.  “Will?  Will?  Are you there?”  The phone went dead and she hasn’t heard from him since.  She didn’t know if he knew which hospital to go to.  She started to text Will, but the EMTs started moving Charlie and she wanted to ride with him.  She told herself that Charlie hadn’t died, they just have all these machines on him so he can’t talk.  But he will be fine.  He will.  Though something inside her new better. 

Mac had no sense of time… how long she stood against a wall… watching Millie… waiting for someone to walk through the door that she knew.  She needed to text him, she needed to let Will know where they took Charlie.  Charlie loved Will like a son.  Will needed to know that.  He needed to hear it.  Those wouldn’t be Charlie’s last words, Mac wanted to believe he’d pull through whatever the fuck happened.  People collapse, it doesn’t mean anything.  It’s a good reason to go to the hospital, but it doesn’t have to mean he said his last words.  People survive collapsing.  Charlie just needed to see Nancy, his daughters, Will.  The people who loved him.  The people who look up to him.  The important people in his life.  That’s all he needs.  He just needs to have the people who love him around him. 

Mac looked at the entrance.  If Nancy was at home, it could be an hour before she got here.  Mac didn’t know exactly where his daughter lived.  She should call the rest of the team.  They shouldn’t hear about this through word of mouth or an email.  She dug her phone out to call Don and Jim, when she saw Will walk through the entrance.  She immediately put her phone in her purse and ran to him.  When she got to Will, within an arm’s length of him, she stopped, hoping for something from him.  Some sign that she could reach out and touch him.  Their eyes connected and it seemed like they had a whole conversation.  He blinked and swallowed and opened his arms and she ran into them.  When he closed his arms around her, for the first time in – she didn’t know how long – she felt safe.  She wanted to believe that he could make Charlie better, he could make Charlie survive.  She knew better, despite Will’s opinion, he wasn’t God, but to have him here, in this moment.  She almost believed he could pull off a miracle of Biblical proportions.    

Will smelled her hair and pulled her closer to him.  God this felt right.  How could he have ever given this up?  How could she?  They ambulanced Charlie to the hospital.  If she loved him, if she didn’t completely ignore his message… This should be more than a comforting hug between two friends.  He doesn’t want to make out with her, but, he wants more with her than friendship.  At a time like this, he just wants more.  But she doesn’t want it, if she did…

Will let go of her and ushered her to a couple chairs in front of them.  She put her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her, keeping her close.  They sat like this for a few minutes before Will said, “What happened?”

“I don’t know.  It all happened so fast.  He called me up for a meeting and everything seemed fine.  We were talking and then he just… he slumped over.  He had a look in his eye, Will.  I’ve seen that look before.  In Afghanistan.  He had a heartbeat and he struggled for breath.  CPR wouldn’t help him.  All I could do was try to clear his airway, try to make it easier for him to breathe until the medics arrived.”

“EMTs.”

“What?”

Will didn’t know what he just said.  He had to replay the last bit of conversation in his head.  She said Afghanistan.  That’s where she went when she had to get away from him.  He could be sitting in a waiting room halfway across the world hoping that she’ll wake up.  Instead he’s sitting with her hoping that his, his other best friend will wake up.  Will tried to pull Mac little closer, if that’s even possible.  “Medics are used in the armed services.  Civilians use EMTs.”

This struck Mac as the funniest thing she ever heard and she started laughing.  Will looked at her perplexed for a second and then started laughing with her.  “Did he… did he, uh, did he say anything?”

Mac looked at Will, unsure what to say.  She told Charlie she would do anything he asked, but looking at Will, she lost her nerve.  She squeezed his hand and said, “he said he loved you like a son.  He was proud of you Will.”

“He was pissed at me.”

“That’s nothing new.  We all hate you occasionally.  Him less often than the rest of us.”

Will looked at her and saw a twinkle in her eye and quirk of a smile on her lips.  He thought about their fight, the one where Charlie called him an asshole for bringing Brian to the newsroom.  Charlie insisted that it would hurt Mac and he didn’t need to do that.  She regrets enough, she doesn’t need the reminder.  Will stopped just short of telling him about the voicemail message that she never returned.  He didn’t want to admit that she rejected him.  She didn’t want him anymore.  For some reason he still wasn’t good enough for her.  She didn’t think enough of him to acknowledge the call. 

Will disentangled himself from Mac, making her look at him with confusion.  Before she could put a question together to ask him, he said, “Was that it?  All he said?”

Mac nodded her head.  “That was most of it.”

Will took a few steps to read a sign on the wall.  He nodded his head to acknowledge her statement.  “Did uh, did you call anyone else?  I mean, is there anyone that I…”

“No.  Millie’s here and she’s making the calls.”  Mac looked at Will and got frustrated.  “Why don’t you come back here and sit, Will?”

“I don’t want to.”

Mac started laughing again.  Will turned around to look at her with an expression of exasperation and anger.  “What the fuck are you laughing at?”

“You!  I don’t want to.  Like you’re a 5-year-old turning down green beans.”

“I’m not acting like a 5-year-old.  I just… I don’t get it Mac!”

Mac stood up and took a couple steps towards him.  He had his back to her again.  “I don’t think anyone knows why these things have to happen.”  She put a hand on his arm. 

Will withdrew his arm from her.  “I don’t give a fuck about why this happens, Mac.  I don’t understand _you_.  I’m pretty good at reading people, Mac.  I had a fucking 95% conviction rate.  I read people and you… you’re sending me signals and then…  I used to know you so well, Mac.  What the fuck happened?”

Mac blinked at him a couple times while opening and closing her mouth.  “What?”

Will didn’t intend to say any of that.  And now he didn’t want to explain it.  But he looked at her, still with that face.  In a hospital.  Where Charlie is… somewhere.  He told her before and she didn’t say it back.  Or say anything at all.  He wished that he could take her in his arms and draw from her strength.  He wished he could see Charlie and say something significant.  He wished he could erase the image of her with Brian.  He wished that she would have outright rejected him instead of keeping her response from him, pretending that she didn’t hear it.  He couldn’t fix Charlie.  But he can make her face him, make her say something to him. 

With every bit of resolved that he could muster, he walked to Mac and put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye.  “Mac, I love you.  And maybe you don’t still love me.  But I don’t think I ever stopped loving you.  And if you need to reject me, I can live with it, but I can’t do this.  I can’t be this close to you, needing you and not understanding if you want me or not.”

Mac stared at him confused.  ”Are you?  Is this just because of Charlie?  I mean, are you just saying this because he’s in there and he might…Are you going to take it back after this emergency is over?”

“Is that what you think happened?  That I was high and so you couldn’t believe me?  That I would forget about it?  I meant it then and I still mean it.”  Will walked away from her in frustration.  How many fucking times does he have to open himself up like this?  He turned back towards her, his face almost pleading with her independent of his words.  “I mean, yes, I wouldn’t have said it again if Charlie wasn’t… But I don’t want to go through this alone, Mac.  I want you back and if I have to do something, earn your trust.  Anything.  I’ll do it.  Just don’t leave me, Mac.  Please.”

Mac couldn’t process everything he just said, all she could do was pull him to her and put his head in her shoulder, petting his hair.  She felt his whole body shaking as he cried and her heart broke.  She tilted her head so that she could whisper in his ear.  “I’m not going to leave you.  I will never leave you Will.  I love you and always have.  You don’t have to do anything, just let me back in.  Let me love you.”

Will cried even harder.  But this time it was relief.  He could do this.  He could face whatever happens with Charlie if she’s with him.  When he calmed down, Mac guided him back to the chairs where they sat in silence, holding hands and each other. 

They watched as the _News Night_ and _Right Now_ teams joined them.  Charlie’s family arrived eventually.  Different groups talked and laughed, shared memories, but through it all, Will and Mac kept a physical connection.  It took a long time before the doctors came out and asked for Nancy, who asked her daughter and Will to join them.  She saw Will look almost like he was in pain as he began to break away from Mac, so she asked for Mac too.  When the doctor told them that Charlie didn’t make it, Will held Mac’s hand even tighter with his other arm around Nancy who had her hand entwined with her daughter’s.    Nancy moved a couple steps away from the others in the room to collect herself and then grabbed Mac in fierce hug.  Mac watched Charlie’s wife and daughter embrace tightly as they grieved Charlie.  Mac felt herself enveloped by Will as they drew strength from each other.  Eventually Nancy Skinner walked to her and Will, hugging the anchor while Mac kept a hand on his arm.  Nancy said, “Charlie loved you so much and he would be so happy to see you and Mac here together.”

Mac waited for an appropriate moment to tap Nancy on the shoulder and said, “He loved you to.  It was one of the last things he said.”

Nancy put her hand to her mouth.  “I know.  He made sure I knew it every day.  Every day.”  Nancy reached out and hugged Mac while Will gathered both women in his embrace. 

The four finally left the room and told the crews of the two New York based shows.  The group decided to go to a nearby bar to toast Charlie.  Mac offered to go home with Nancy, who refused saying she had a lot of family that would start arriving soon.  She won’t be alone.  Once Nancy left the hospital, Will and Mac joined the group at the bar.  Don asked Will to make the official toast.  “There has never been a man like Charlie Skinner.  No one could tell a story like him.  No one could drink like him.  No one could inspire or believe in people like him.”  Will looked at Mac and smiled.  “Though some come close.”  He gripped Mac’s hand a little harder.  “There will never be another Charlie Skinner, and that’s too bad for journalism and the world in general.”

Mac stood up when he looked overcome.  “But those of us who knew him get to carry on his legacy.  We are doing exactly what he wanted.  He is so proud of this group.” 

Every one lifted their glass and said, “to Charlie”.

Will and Mac took their time getting back to her place, deciding to walk several blocks before hailing a cab.  When they got to their destination and settled into the couch each with a drink in their hands, Mac looked at Will, still unsure how they got here.  “He was just laying there, and there was nothing I could do.  He had a heart beat and ragged breath.  CPR wouldn’t help him, rescue breathing wouldn’t help.  I couldn’t do anything.  I was holding his hand and he said his final words.  He looked at me and said, ‘tell Will you love him’.  I asked him if he was supposed to say something to his wife and he said, ‘She knows.  Will doesn’t, and I love him like a son.’  He was proud of you, Will.  He loved you.  Just like I do.”

Will put his arm around Mac again and held her head on his chest.  “I don’t know how he always knew.  I didn’t tell him about the message, and I didn’t know before that.  I just didn’t know until I saw how much you believed in me.”

Mac had no idea what he meant, but it didn’t matter.  “He believed in you too.  And he believed in us.”

“Yeah he did.”

 


End file.
